Host Volume

Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.h.14

Publication Details

Type of host: 
printed book retaining early binding
Title of volume: 

Pontificale nouiter impressum perpulchrisque characteribus diligentissime annotatum.

Publication: 

Lyon: Jean Moilin alias de Cambrai, 1511

Bibliographical reference for printing: 
USTC 143855

Binding Information

Binding style: 
blind-stamped, diaper design
Binding detail: 

Dark leather over boards (wood at front cracked), sewn on four thongs. On each board, a rectangle formed by the repeated use of a roll with symbols associated with Catherine of Aragon (portcullis, pomegranate, antelope, rose); within rectangle diaper design, with each lozenge having a flower motif. A near-identical binding and its provenance is discussed by Trevor Mill, 'A Sixteenth-Century English Binding in the State Library of Victoria: links between Cambridge and Cologne', Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, iv (1980), pp. 234-40.

The image provides a detail of the upper board.

Place of binding: 
?Cambridge
Date range for binding: 
1511 x 1530

Hosting Information

Number of manuscripts represented: 
1
Number of fragments: 
1

Further information

Provenance: 
  • William Duffield, bishop of Ascalon, bought it second-hand in 1530: below end of opening contents list (fol. [ii verso]): 'Pontificale in Christo patris domini domini Willelmi duffildi sacre pagine professoris ordinis minorum conuentus coventrensis necnon permissione diuina asculoenensis episcopi emptus per eundem Londoniis anno salutis 1530 siue consecracionis primo qui utetur oret fideliter pro anima predicti domini'; other signs of his ownership including 'Willielmus asculenen (sic) episcopus me emit 1530' written in the empty shield at bottom of the first folio of text; he writes copious notes through the volume, often translating text into English
  • On the basis of his status as a friar, tentatively assigned by MLGB3 to the Franciscan Convent of Coventry
  • 'Ricardus persevall. Vince fecendo' written at the bottom of the final folio of the index, and a similar inscription in empty shield of title-page
  • Samuel Harsnett (1561-1631), archbishop of York, 1629-31.
Date last updated: 
Friday, September 23, 2016 - 07:29